Ignorance Is Strength: The Fundamentalist Assault On American Freedom

Th is book exposes the unholy alliance between Christian fundamentalists andRepublican plutocrats. Th ey form the nation's fi rst religiously based nationalpolitical party, dedicated to government favors for the rich, imposition ofevangelical Christian morality on society at large, and the undermining ofconstitutional freedoms established by the nation's founders."Ignorance is Strength," one of Big Brother's slogans in Orwell's dystopiannovel, NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, is the guiding principle of thefundamentalist-Republican party. It has promoted the deliberate dumbingof America, waging a war against science on all fronts, including the teachingof evolution and the benefi ts of contraception in combatting sexuallytransmitted disease. It preaches a gospel of primitive fear. Its militant truebelievers view expansion of the Iraq war into a Middle East confl agrationas the means of assuring Jesus's Second Coming.IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH explains why the nation's founderscreated the world's fi rst constitutional republic banning state-sponsoredreligion. Th e founders established religious liberty, free of the coercion thatperpetrated Europe's ferocious religious wars and sectarian atrocities. Th eypromoted the private concept of religion, rejecting the primitive appeals tofear by proponents of state-sponsored religion. Th e founders propelled usforward toward individualistic freedom; the fundamentalist-Republicansurge us back toward a superstitious dictatorship of the busybodies.